Mystery shop at a mobile phone store

Haven’t done any mystery shopping in a while, although I have been keeping an eye on the jobs that come up. It does seem I get emails from the various mystery shopping companies on almost a daily basis but whenever I check there are no jobs available in my area. Not sure if I am just checking them to late or there just aren’t as many at the moment.

Then last week I got a phone call from one of the companies asking if I was available today to do a mystery shop in a phone store. My task was to go in and pretend I had made a claim on my phone insurance which I supposedly had with them but still hadn’t received the phone two weeks later. The major flaw I saw in this brief was that I didn’t have a phone or an insurance policy with them which the mystery shopping company assured me wasn’t required but I was convinced would foil my cover as soon as they typed my name into their computer and they realised I was full of shit. So I spent most of last night reading the instructions on the brief and coming up with an elaborate back story including a phone purchased by my aunt and an insurance policy taken out at the same time as one for my dad and not being sure what exactly was in my name. This coupled with the fact that I was on my lunch break and in a hurry would hopefully explain why they wouldn’t be able to find my name on their system.

When I entered the store, a lady came up and greeted me (so far so good) then when I made the enquiry as to where my phone was she went and got a leaflet and told me to call the number on there (not so good as I knew there was a whole process she was supposed to take me through). I explained that I had already been trying to call that number but could never get through or always put on hold. She said that all they could do was call the same number as I did. Just as I was beginning to think about taking the leaflet and walking out, a male staff member came from behind and explained that they could get someone to call me back if I had a minute he would take a few details (and now we’re getting somewhere). So I went and had a seat and the original woman came over and watched what he was doing. I figured she might have been new or didn’t know what I assume is always the same procedure the mystery shopper goes through because I’m pretty sure the guy was a manager that had overheard my enquiry. The guy asked a few details why I was trying to remember as much details about the two of him as possible including eye colour, height, build, ethnicity, accent, age, hair coulour and any other rediculously small detail that was required. Then I noticed he didn’t have a name badge and I remember the brief being adamant that in order to get paid I had to get the name of the person who served me. After he asked me what time I would like to call back I had to think quick as to how I was going to get his name without giving the game away that I was the mystery shopper, so I asked if they had the new IPhone in store which was nothing to do with the mystery shop. He went and borrowed his colleagues and showed it to me. I came up with some crap about how my dad needed a new phone and asked if I could send him in to chat to him. That’s when I asked his name. I was quite proud of the ingenious way of getting his name. I left the store, took a photo of it which was required and it was all finished within 10 minutes which isn’t bad for £10. The only problem is all the preparation reading the brief yesterday and the half hour it took to put the details in the questionaire today hardly makes it worth it but still quite an amusing day.